By Robert Hutton March 26 (Bloomberg) -- English local councils’ pension plans are underfunded by around 65 billion pounds ($96 billion), an academic study found, suggesting they may need to move to a pay-as-you-go system. Local-government authorities across England currently have pension-fund assets totaling about 120 billion pounds and liabilities of 185 billion pounds, Andrew Clare, professor of asset management at Cass Business School in London, said in research published today. “Pension provision is one of the most pressing issues of our time,” Clare said in an e-mailed statement. “Unless drastic reform takes place, the black hole in this scheme will have to be funded by the underlying sponsor: the British taxpayer.” One million local-government employees are paying into the plans. Central-government pensions are already run on a pay-as- you-go basis, in which payments are funded from current contributions. To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Hutton in London atrhutton1@bloomberg.net.English Councils Face $96 Billion Pension Gap, Academic Says
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Last Updated: March 25, 2010 20:01 EDT
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